Gubernatorial hopeful touts Gingrich for RNC chairman

Republican leadership

Republicans should tap former House speaker Newt Gingrich to rebuild the party in the wake of two disastrous elections, said John Oxendine, a Republican candidate for governor.

Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman and the architect of Republicans' sweep in the 1994 election, should be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, Oxendine told a group of law students Wednesday at the University of Georgia.

Oxendine, the state insurance commissioner, credited the Republican takeover of Congress 14 years ago to Gingrich's strategy, the Contract with America, and compared that election to the Democratic gains in 2006 and 2008 that carried Barack Obama to the presidency.

"They won because, you know what their message was? Change," he said. "You think Obama made it up? He took a playbook from 1994."

Republicans took over Congress because Democrats let power go to their heads, but Republicans also started to lust after big offices and lobbyist cash around 2000 or 2002, he said.

"They started concentrating on power - keeping it, maintaining it," he said. "That's when I knew the Republican Party was going to be in trouble."

Democrats won control of Congress in 2006 and gained more seats and the presidency last week because they offered something new, Oxendine said. Republicans can no longer depend on family values and a strong military to win elections, he said.

"When you look at our candidates across the country, they were the same old thing, same old rhetoric," he said.

Republicans will keep losing elections until they "tear up the playbook," and Gingrich can work behind the scenes to bring them back to power, Oxendine said.

"We need someone with some vision," he said.

Because Republicans do not control any branch of federal government, the RNC chairman is perhaps the most powerful post in the party. The term of the current chairman, Mike Duncan, expires in January.

Gingrich, who now heads a conservative think tank called American Solutions, is reportedly open to serving as RNC chairman.

Although Georgians won't elect a new governor for two years, Oxendine is one of three candidates already running. Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and retired Lt. Gen. David Poythress, the Democratic former Georgia secretary of state, have also filed paperwork to seek the office.

Oxendine said he keeps his office open until 7 p.m. for citizens' convenience and employs 20 percent fewer people than his predecessor did 15 years ago. As governor, he said he will aim to make government more efficient and responsive.

"We're going to break through the bureaucracy," he said. "We're going to run government the way people run a household, the way they run a business. We're going to be good stewards."